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Last week was a particularly exciting time for this author. Without any warning, my supernatural horror story collectionThe Midnight Men and Other Stories spent two days in the Amazon top ten charts.

For 48 hours I watched as it jumped about the Top 100 list for Horror Short Stories, reaching its highest ranking of #9, before falling down the rankings a bit then rising again to #10 briefly. At one time it was sandwiched between two HP Lovecraft collections! Cool! Another time it was also sandwiched between two of my literary heroes - Stephen King and Joe Konrath! As you can imagine, I was in a very happy place.

Thanks to everyone who purchased a copy and/or downloaded a sample. Its little moments like these which make the whole journey worthwhile.

It's been a long and difficult road but my novel Lazarus Island is almost done. And when it is finally done it will be my first fully-fledged indie novel. A quick look at the lovely My Books scrolling-thingy above shows the ebooks I currently have to offer on Amazon, and you may notice they are all short story compendiums of varying length. Although I've had some minor successes with the short story collections (particularly The Midnight Men which this week hit the top ten in Amazon's Horror Short Stories chart) I am continually reminded that it is novels which sell well in this new Kindle/Nook age, so I'm really hoping Lazarus Island will liven things up. I will report on its success once it goes live next month.

From April 13th to the 21st, author L David Hesler is offering to donate the profits from his book Prismatica to the charity Relay for Life. Please consider buying this book. I can't recommend it highly enough.

"1993- Michael Duncan is a rural police officer. He meets a mysterious young girl during a routine search and rescue mission in the woods of Soldier Creek, a haunted stream on the outskirts of Mason's Post, Missouri. His encounter with this tortured girl has consequences that reach nearly twenty years into the future, when a madman possessed by something dark and primal threatens to tear apart a family... and the fabric of reality itself. As Michael's story unfolds in four different sections, the mystery only becomes more maddening. Why was he chosen? And where will he go when he's fulfilled his destiny?"

I'd been planning to get myself a Kindle for ages, and after a recent trip to my local Staples store to purchase a memory stick and browse their range of laptops, I asked the sales assistant if by any chance they sold ebook readers. She pointed behind me and I was stunned (and a little suprised) to find a massive display dedicated to the Kindle towering over me. What's more surprising is that they were selling them at the same price as Amazon. So I got myself the Wi-Fi 3G version and haven't looked back since.

It really is a marvel. Without wanting this post to turn into an advert for Amazon's baby, I just want to say how this device really has changed the game for readers and, more importantly, writers in the 21st century. Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Yesterday, Saturday, I attended my Open University graduation ceremony. I took my Kindle with me just in case there were some lulls in the day. There were. Anyway, during the ceremony an honorary de…

For mystery writer Sam Thorne, moving to the island was supposed to be a fresh start—an idyllic refuge for his young family, and an escape from his past indiscretions. Things he wanted dead and buried.

But on Scalasay, the past has a way of catching up with you . . .

The horror which tore the island apart ten years earlier is returning. Ben Garrett, the convicted rapist and murderer, is coming back to the island to visit his dying mother. But no one could have foreseen the shocking turn of events which are about to unfold.

A storm is coming . . .And on this terrifying night even the dead will not stay dead . . .